In my January article, I wrote that one of my wishes for 2008 was to see a “stronger connection between Latinos and African Americans.”

Well, in keeping with its nickname as The City of Firsts, Springfield has moved ahead of the national scene and taken a step toward unifying the power of African Americans and Latinos, while at the same making political history.

On April 5, voters in the Second Congressional District gathered at Springfield Technical Community College to elect two delegates (one male and one female) pledged to Barak Obama for this summer’s Democratic National Convention in August. E. Henry Twiggs and Elizabeth Cardona, two Springfield residents well-known for their work in the city, were elected by wide margins on the first ballot.

The afternoon was filled with firsts: it was the largest caucus in the Commonwealth, with over 400 Obama Democrats participating. It was also the first time a slate comprised of an African American male and Latina was elected.

“We teamed up primarily because I thought it was important we in Springfield close the gap in the working relationship between African Americans and Latinos,” said Twiggs, who for the past six years has served as chairman of the city’s Democratic Committee. For the past ten years, he has chaired the party’s committee in Springfield’s Ward 4. Although this is not the first national convention he has attended, Twiggs described this one as the most important for him because of Obama’s candidacy. 

Cardona, who is the director of Governor Deval Patrick’s Western Massachusetts office, said she was honored to be elected and noted the political importance of the large Latino presence at last month’s caucus.

“Our community is made up of citizens who want to be involved and who shouldn’t be taken for granted by people who have often had the stereotype that we are ‘lazy’ or not involved in the process” she explained. “[Latinos] have an investment. We are a part of the community.”

For Cardona, it is the first time she has sought such a position, making her the first Latina from Massachusetts to be elected as a delegate to the national convention. Vladimir Morales, the first Latino to be elected to a delegate slot for the Democratic National Convention, was on hand to celebrate Cardona’s victory.

Twiggs and Cardona maintain that teaming up as a slate will benefit other ethnic groups and the city.

“If we’re going to make a significant change in Springfield,” Twiggs explains, “we have to show the majority that we’re working together for the betterment of the total community. All boats rise when people work in harmony.”

The fissure-divide separating both ethnic groups has become a national topic in part because of the riots between African American and Latino inmates in California’s Chino state prison and several other violent attacks, specifically by Latino gangs against African Americans. Although economic competition has often been the reason cited for the distance between the two groups, more scholars and commentators point to the imbedded racism in both U.S. American and Latin American cultures.

“The fact is that racism — and anti-black racism in particular,” writes Tanya K. Hernandez, a professor of law at Rutgers University Law School, “is a pervasive and historically entrenched reality of life in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“Our communities share very similar challenges,” Cardona notes. “If we unite, we know that we will be able to make some great progress.”

Twiggs’ work in the Civil Rights Movement is very well known. He helped organize a contingent from Western Massachusetts to join Dr. King in the 1963 March on Washington. In 1965, Twiggs, who grew up in a segregated South, participated in the walk from Selma to Birmingham, Alabama, walking with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other Civil Rights leaders over the Edmond Pettis Bridge. After King’s assassination, he participated in the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign, a movement led by King that focused on poor people of all races.

Forming a coalition not just between African Americans and Latinos, but one which includes all groups, is clearly something Twiggs has worked towards for many years.

“I have always extended an open arm to all segments of the community,” he notes. When he noticed that Latinos were a growing population in the city’s Ward 4, Twiggs, as chair of that ward’s Democratic Committee, left slots on the committee available for Latino representation.

“Politically, I have also felt the need for us to be closer,” he observed, adding that connections still need to be strengthened.

In the 1960s, Twiggs managed the Riverview Housing Projects in the North End and developed a working relationship with the Latino community. He adds that he has always supported Latino political candidates, including City Councilman José Tosado, State Representative Cheryl Coakley-Rivera, and Carmen Rosa.

“I am honored to support Elizabeth and to receive her support” he said. He described his running mate as a “genuinely a good person. She’s not in politics for herself. I could tell early on that she was in this business to help people.”

Expressing her appreciation for Twiggs, Cardona points to his ability to reach out to all ethnic groups throughout the city.  

“People feel comfortable with him,” she said.

 Like Twiggs, the commitment to local activism and social service, however, also runs deep in Cardona and her family. Her grandfather worked the tobacco fields in the 1950s as a supervisor.

“For us, the working-class, this was an honor and certainly a great experience,” she explains.

Cardona’s aunt worked in social services for the Spanish American Union. When Cardona was 9-years old, she was involved in her first protest. Along with her aunt and many other North End residents, Cardona marched to the Federal Building to oppose to cuts in the food stamp program.

As a child, Cardona experienced prejudice and racism firsthand, witnessing a landlord tell her father that he “didn’t rent to Puerto Ricans.” When she was about seven-years old, Cardona was terrorized by a neighbor who sicced his dog on her and her siblings, shouting for the “spics” to get off his property. The landlord of the housing complex eventually re-designed the pathway of the apartments so Cardona could pass safely. She also recalls a teacher who, failing to consider cultural traditions, held Cardona’s face tightly and pulled it up close to hers.

“She shouted, ‘Look at me when I talk to you,’” Cardona remembered. “Oh, the things like that that I have witnessed….”

Becoming involved in local politics and civil rights became a way of addressing these and other injustices.

“It’s something I have deep within me to help people,” she added. “We are citizens, we pay taxes, the public needs to appreciate Latinos for who we are, to accept us as neighbors.”

The opportunity to work with members of the city’s diverse communities is essential.

“We all have an ability to be a part of something greater,” she said.

It is clear that Twiggs shares this goal.

“It can’t always be about me, it has to be about us,” Twiggs emphasized. “It has to be about us as a community.

“We’re a team,” he added. “Short of that, we are not doing justice to the people who are following us.”

 Arlene Rodriguez is Dean of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Springfield Technical Community College. She can be reached at arodriguez@stcc.edu